Statement Of Facts

Tears flowed inside and outside a Carroll County courtroom yesterday, as a former Westminster man received a 10-year prison sentence for killing a Randallstown man and injuring four family members in a crash in April on Route 140 near Taneytown.Richard Robinson, 28, died, and his wife Mary, 27; his mother, Diane Robinson, 47; and sons Bradley, 3, and Zachary, 2, were injured as the family headed toward Taneytown about noon April 6 in a 1990 Dodge van -- to buy "a big-boy bed" for Bradley.

On the day his death penalty murder trial was to begin, Eugene E. Winder ignored his lawyers' advice and admitted in court that he killed three people in the Eastern Shore town of Fruitland and set their house on fire in February 1998.After hearing a statement of facts in the case, Baltimore County Circuit Judge John F. Fader II convicted Winder, 25, a Fruitland electrician, of arson and first-degree murder in the deaths of his estranged girlfriend, Christie Lee Mainor, and her grandparents, John and Geraldine Mainor.

Former Johns Hopkins University administrator Robert J. Schuerholz admitted yesterday in federal court to failing to report $348,900 in taxable income over a four-year period -- university money he received in what prosecutors described as a "billing fraud and kickback scheme."The extent of Schuerholz's income tax evasion -- he avoided paying $97,692 in federal income taxes from 1992 to 1995 -- and the details of his scheme were revealed by prosecutors in a statement of facts that accompanied a plea agreement reached with the 63-year-old resident of Manor Glen Road in Baldwin.

A 20-year-old woman was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty yesterday to stabbing and bludgeoning her mother to death in their Hampstead townhouse in March.The sentence was met with loud protests and hysterical sobbing from a half-dozen members of the family of Doris A. Ziemski, the 52-year-old victim.Kristi Lynn Ziemski will be eligible for parole on the first-degree murder conviction in 15 years, said Carroll County Circuit Judge Luke K. Burns Jr., referring to a law that took effect Oct. 1."

A Baltimore County man pleaded guilty yesterday to attempted murder and assault in a shooting in May involving his girlfriend and a county police officer who tried to help her.Illinois Smith, 26, was accused of trying to kill Leah G. Littlefield, 22, and assaulting Officer Brian K. Brennan, who had pulled Smith's car over when he saw it swerve on North Rolling Road in Woodlawn. Police said Smith fired his .45-caliber handgun at the officer, who was not injured.Smith, appearing in Baltimore County Circuit Court, pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder, first-degree assault and illegal use of a handgun.

A former ambulance company owner pleaded guilty yesterday to felony Medicaid fraud and felony Medicare theft for his role in a scheme to steal more than $440,000, the state Attorney General's Office said.Gary Jefferson, 37, of the 7200 block of Chippenham Place, pleaded guilty before Baltimore County Circuit Judge Kathleen G. Cox. Jefferson was sentenced to 18 months in jail on each count.Jefferson is the former owner of Care Plus Ambulance Service, Inc. and Care Plus Care Ambulance Services, Inc., formerly of the 8200 block of Liberty Road.

A Columbia man was convicted yesterday of trying to resolve a heated divorce and custody battle by hiring a hit man in an attempt to kill his wife.Mark Cordero, 43, wearing a suit and leg irons in Howard County Circuit Court, admits to the crime, his attorney said, but pleaded not guilty because of technical flaws in the case.Cordero, a former computer engineer for International Business Machines Corp., was found guilty by Judge Raymond J. Kane Jr.Prosecutors said Cordero could face up to life in prison when he is sentenced March 31, although state guidelines recommend a sentence of four to nine years for solicitation of murder.

A Catonsville man pleaded guilty yesterday to his part in scheme to swindle tens of thousands of dollars from unsuspecting Baltimore-area residents whose credit card checks and personal data were stolen from mailboxes and postal delivery vehicles.Christopher X. Gibson, 27, admitted in U.S. District Court in Baltimore that he and an alleged accomplice, Mark Gregory Young, stole mail from the postal vehicles. Six postal trucks were broken into, primarily while parked in Roland Park and Mount Washington in the city and Rodgers Forge and Towson in Baltimore County, court papers showed.

Mark Cordero was convicted yesterday of trying to resolve a heated divorce and custody battle by hiring a hit man in an attempt to kill his wife.The former IBM computer engineer, 43, wearing a suit and leg irons in Howard County Circuit Court, admits to the crime, his attorney said, but pleaded not guilty because of technical flaws in the case.Cordero was found guilty by Judge Raymond J. Kane Jr.Prosecutors said Cordero, a Columbia resident, could face up to life in prison when he is sentenced March 31, although state guidelines recommend four to nine years for solicitation of murder.

Bank robber Anthony J. Zenone, 32, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison yesterday for murdering two men at Loch Raven Reservoir in a 1995 case that remained a mystery until police found the rifle used in the crime in Zenone's locked bedroom closet.His plea, made in front of his mother and his victims' relatives, came four days before his trial was to begin in Baltimore County Circuit Court. By the time he is eligible for parole, he will be in his 80s.As part of the plea agreement, Circuit Judge John G. Turnbull II ordered Zenone to serve two life sentences concurrently, but only after he completes the 34-year sentence he is serving for a federal bank robbery conviction.

A Brooklyn man pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Tuesday in Anne Arundel County District Court in the May fatal shooting of an Annapolis man. Deonte Desmund Boyd, 25, of the 3700 block of St. Margaret St. also pleaded guilty to a handgun violation in the death of Michael Lee Thompson Sr., 31. According to a statement of facts read by Assistant State's Attorney Kelly Poma, Thompson had suffered 10 gunshot wounds, including two to the head that appeared...

The head of a Lanham company that promised to help people facing foreclosure but instead used their homes to steal millions of dollars through a series of complicated mortgage fraud schemes pleaded guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. Jennifer McCall, the 47-year-old chief executive of Metropolitan Money Store Corp. is the fifth of eight defendants in the case to plead guilty. According to a statement of facts attached to her plea agreement, McCall, her husband and other conspirators talked homeowners into turning their property titles over to a third party while Metropolitan Money Store helped them repair their credit ratings and obtain better mortgage rates.

Two establishments in North Laurel - a Pasta Blitz restaurant and Crickett's Fat Daddy Saloon - have been cited and fined by the county Alcoholic Beverage Hearing Board for liquor license violations. Pasta Blitz owners Rita and Luigi Palma-Esposito were fined $750 and prohibited from selling alcohol Nov. 7 and 8 at their restaurant on Montpelier Road for a series of administrative failures found in May by a county police detective. The licensees had not applied to renew their liquor license by May 1, and it had expired.

Alan B. Fabian, a Maryland entrepreneur, philanthropist and former Republican fundraiser, pleaded guilty yesterday in Baltimore federal court to a multiyear scheme that the government says defrauded banks and businesses of at least $32 million. "This is a massive fraud," U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett said several times during the two-hour arraignment. Fabian, 43, had been indicted on 26 counts, including money laundering and perjury in connection with the scheme. He pleaded guilty yesterday to two counts of the indictment after reaching a plea agreement with the U.S. attorney's office.

A former office manager for a Columbia law firm pleaded guilty yesterday to stealing almost $706,000 from the company - one of the largest embezzlement cases in county history, according to the state's attorney's office. Christine McClain-Sloane, 41, used company checks to pay for personal expenses for six of the 11 years she worked at Nagle and Zaller PC, the Howard County state's attorney's office said. McClain-Sloane pleaded guilty to two counts of felony theft scheme, and Howard Circuit Judge Diane O. Leasure revoked her bail.

A 29-year-old woman pleaded guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore to an identity theft scheme in which she opened credit accounts in the names of at least 15 people and purchased more than $400,000 of merchandise, federal prosecutors said. Nekia Ishawn Hunter of Baltimore admitted to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and production of false identification documents, and she faces a maximum 47 years in prison when she is sentenced Oct. 26, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

A Western Maryland mother of two who offered businesses a cheap but illegal way to mail letters and packages was sentenced in federal court to serve 2 1/2 years in prison after admitting she counterfeited hundreds of thousands of dollars in metered postage. U.S. District Judge Andre M. Davis sentenced Julie Hoffman, 33, of Lonaconing to the prison term followed by two years of supervised release. Davis also ordered Hoffman to pay restitution of $251,011.91. Her attorney in federal court in Baltimore said yesterday she had written a $5,000 check to start to pay back the U.S. Postal Service for its losses.

A 49-year old Baltimore woman entrusted with funds for a State Highway Administration Christmas party for her co-workers' children pleaded guilty yesterday in Baltimore Circuit Court to stealing much of the money. Javana Jenkins of Canton, a clerk who worked at the agency's offices in the 700 block of N. Calvert St., never held the party, which raised the suspicions of Walter Lycett, a retired employee who had turned the funds over to her. Jenkins repaid the money she stole, and under a plea agreement with the attorney general's office was given a suspended 18-month jail term and 18 months' probation by Judge Gale E. Rasin.

Two Howard County men pleaded guilty this week in Howard County Circuit Court to charges stemming from a drug-related shooting in the parking lot of a Bennigan's last year that left one man paralyzed. On Tuesday, Raymond Ko Kang, 19, of the 10000 block of Hillingdon Road in Woodstock, pleaded guilty to drug trafficking with the use of a firearm and to first-degree assault. Jonathan Kim, 19, of the 3500 block of Split Rail Lane in Ellicott City, pleaded guilty to possession of drugs with the intent to distribute and to second-degree assault, according to the Howard County state's attorney's office.

Man's trial in death of student postponed The trial of the Baltimore man accused of suffocating a Johns Hopkins University senior in January 2005 has been postponed until September. Donta Maurice Allen, 28, was scheduled to stand trial yesterday in the killing of Linda Trinh, 21, who was found dead in the bathtub of her Charles Street high-rise apartment near the university. Warren A. Brown, Allen's attorney, has said his client is not guilty. Police have said DNA found on Trinh belonged to Allen, who has been described as the former boyfriend of one of Trinh's sorority sisters.